0026: People You Should Know — Admiral Robert Blake (1598–1657)‘Father of the Royal Navy’

  

People You Should Know — Admiral Robert Blake (1598–1657)

"Admiral Robert Blake, ‘Father of the Royal Navy’ — honored in life, dishonored in death for serving the ‘wrong’ side."

In 1661, after the Restoration, King Charles II ordered the body of Admiral Robert Blake exhumed from Westminster Abbey. Blake — the brilliant naval commander, "Father of the Royal Navy," who defended England at sea, crushed enemy fleets for the Commonwealth, and earned unmatched respect — was dragged from his honored grave and dumped into a common pit like garbage. His crime? Serving the "wrong" side. Winning victories that made the restored monarchy look bad. Exposing, by his very success, that power could be challenged.

Born in Bridgwater, Somerset, to a merchant family, Blake was no professional sailor in his youth. He studied at Oxford, served in local politics, and even fought as a soldier for Parliament during the early years of the English Civil War. But the sea called him when the Commonwealth needed capable commanders. In 1649 he was appointed "General at Sea" — a title that carried the authority of an admiral — and he quickly proved himself one of the finest naval leaders England has ever produced.

Blake transformed the navy. He helped expand it from a handful of ships into a formidable force of over a hundred vessels. He pioneered keeping fleets at sea through entire winters to maintain blockades, developed more flexible tactics, and instilled discipline and morale among his crews. His men respected him for his personal courage and fairness — he led from the front and shared their hardships.

His victories were stunning. He defeated the Royalist fleet at the Battle of Portland and the Gabbard during the First Anglo-Dutch War, humbling the mighty Dutch. He crushed the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. And in his final campaign against Spain, he captured the Spanish treasure fleet at Tenerife in 1657 — a daring raid under the guns of shore batteries that many thought impossible. Wounded in the action, he died on 7 August 1657 within sight of Plymouth as his victorious fleet sailed home.

England gave him a hero’s funeral. His body was rowed up the Thames in state and buried with full honors in Westminster Abbey, in Henry VII’s Chapel, among kings and queens.

Then came the Restoration. When Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, old scores were settled. On orders from the new king, Blake’s remains — along with those of other leading Commonwealth figures — were exhumed in 1661. The man who had done so much to build English naval power was unceremoniously thrown into a pit in the churchyard of St Margaret’s, next to the Abbey. No marker, no honor — just a mass grave for those who had dared oppose the monarchy.

A later plaque on the exterior of St Margaret’s quietly records the names of those ejected from the Abbey, including Blake. Today, inside the Abbey, a modest memorial honors him as “Chief Founder of England’s Naval Supremacy.”

Robert Blake rose not through court favor or noble birth, but through competence, courage, and devotion to duty. He served the government of his day faithfully, built the foundations of the navy that would one day rule the waves, and never sought personal glory. Yet in death, politics turned his honors to dust.

A spark for us: True greatness is often measured not by statues or grand tombs, but by what a person builds and the example they set — even when later powers try to erase them. Steady service and quiet integrity outlast revenge and fashion. In turbulent times, the sea (and history) remembers those who kept their hands steady on the tiller.

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Curtis Anthony Neil/Grok 4.0/ LibreOffice. March  31st. 2026 AD.

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